Disclaimer"I don't own Harry Potter"
Warming English is not my first language
The meaning of sacrifice
They knew the meaning of sacrifice each and every one of them.
From the youngest who had just finished school to the oldest who had lived a full life.
If you were to ask any of the members of the Order how they chose what they did they would tell you it was easy really easy.
Maybe easier than it should have been for some of them because they knew that sacrificing their own lives would mean survival of others.
And to them that was enough they did not need recognition or reward just the knowledge that they had done right.
It was easy for them to chose between life and death or as they liked to call it to chose between what was right and what was easy.
To them, it was easy to choose the right way compared to the easy way or even the wrong way some people chose during that bloody war.
The easy way was to just stay neutral and allow other people to fight for them but they were brave and like justice so they were ready to die for people they did not even know.
Just because that was the right thing to do.
They fought proudly and never gave up until someone killed them in the middle of a battle for the light
As for the wrong way that was understandable joining Voldemort was out of the question from the very beginning even if they had a higher chance of survival because the Order did not kill.
They would never stoop as low as the scums they fought in a daily bases
Because they believed in the cause and still do even so many years later and after so many losses so what if they were very few of them what they were doing was right. They know it.
To them what mattered was the end purpose and not what it cost to achieve.
The price to pay was low even if it was their own lives.
That was why they did not mourn those who died, those who were injured or those who were lost but continued fighting until they too died or until the war ended whichever came first to them it did not matter they were ready and waiting.
Very few of the first Order members survived the war and those who did were left to mourn and rebuilt as much as they could with so many holes in their lives where their friends had been.
Those who were left went to fight on another war even bloodier than the first and with even more losses they knew they would not survive but they still fought.
Because they knew the meaning of sacrifice ever years later.